Using their now standard and nearly perfected tactics and strategies of Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics, The Powers That Be are once again manipulating The People. And using The People to manipulate the Traditional Media, and thus public opinion at large.
Using their private media army of the Rushes and Becks and Hannity’s, they gin up rage, at times murderous rage, in the populace at will. A rage that they have planted and tended to and nurtured for years and now are ready ….and willing…to harvest.
The Ruling Class manufactures and produces an unfair society, our society …that profits them.
This produces an unhappy People, outraged at the unfairness of society and culture. Then their private media tells the People why they are unhappy. Using their carefully crafted and emotionally resonant Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. They blame and spin and manipulate until they are able to set one group of The People against another group of The People. Telling them that THESE are your real enemies.
And they fool at least Some of The People all of the time.
We are all living with a burden of shame and fear and anger, and in every single moment of your life, in every action, you invite decency and grace, or you invite violence and hate. Sometimes, sometimes, you get the violence and hate anyway. But if you feed it…that is always what you will get. That doesn’t make it right or deserved. But if progressivism is about anything to me, it is about the very long fight for human dignity.
This is the Human Condition.
It takes VERY little to fire the impulses of violence and hate, when you have created an unfair environment, an unfair soiciety. It is a resource you can tap into at any given time. Mostly what keeps it at bay is Bread and Circuses. But in hard times, when the bread is scarce and the circuses don’t quite fill the void….
And when because of the Hard Times the hegemony of the Ruling Class is threatened….
The waiting, tended and nurtured and engineered impulses are tapped into. Ramped up, ginned up, stoked…and harvested.
The unfairness and the bitterness and lurking impulses that The Ruling Class have created as part of creating an unfair and bitter society that profits them…..are finally activated and tapped…..somewhat ironically and in a hugely cynical way….to protect The Ruling Class.
It is no surprise that they are able to manipulate The People. This IS a Class War. And the Rules of War, any kind of War, are always the same…
The People, and at this poinjt it must be said, the stupidest of The People, are easily manipulated into fighting against their own interests. Just as they have been manipulated into voting agaianst their own interests for generations.
It must be said because The Ruling Class can only stay in power if they fool Some of The People into supporting them…
And use and manipulate Some of The People into fighting the very people who are trying to help them. The People, Liberals, who are trying to create a more just and equal and dignified world.
They do this by preying on and manipulating Human Nature….and by flat out lying.
They take basic human nature and manipulate it to their ends. They point out, highlight and engineer differences between us. The differences that THEY have helped create, and that they continuously foster. They use the animal part of our minds to continously emphasize and stimulate that part of us that long ago, at the beginning of Human Evolution out there on the savannah, feared one thing more than anything else….The Other. That looming unkown entity out there in the dasrkness just beyond the fire.
The Other, the tribe over the hill, wants to take your tribes food and kill your children….and elders..and rape your women and kill YOU.
ARE YOU GOING TO LET THEM DO THAT?
The Ruling Class asks them, through their private media/propaganda outlets.
And, it must be said, the stupidest, the poorest, the very ones who have suffered most at the hands of The Ruling Class rise up.
They rise up, they think…to protect their tribe. But they have, once again been manipulted into protecting the Ruling Class. In this case, haha, the Insurance and Health Care Industry tribe of the Ruling Class!
The Ruling Class fights against education. They fight against information dispersal…that they don’t control, they smear, marginalize, and label Other, (Kenyans, lol) or destroy leaders who threaten to unite The People.
They demonize and create fear and division. And it works, because there is part of us that is still wired to believe it, believe that we are somehow different from each other….even though we are not.
We cannot truly know how deliberate this is. We cannot know what level of conscious conspiracy is involved. We cannot know how much of this is THEIR animal programming from the days back on the savannah. They are a tribe too. And the Liberal Others are threatening their tribe. They….we…are threatening the Insurance and Health Care Industry tribe of the Ruling Class. They truly see this as a war … us trying to destroy them.
We have now seen that they will use the poor folk that they have already hurt the most….by keeping them confused and ignorant and dependent…as a mob to attack those they see as attacking them. Us. Just as The Ruling Class has always used the populace to fight the wars, that profit only them, throughout human history.
The only question left on their side of the ledger is….how far will they go?
The question on our side is….how do we fight back?
Will we be tempted into obetying our lower, animal instincts? Or will we find a new way, a better way, a more evolved way?
There can be no doubt, we ARE divided. Denying that, and keeping silent about it, or pretending the divisions don’t exist merely widens the divisions ….by keeping them stuffed down onto the animal parts of us where they can act without us fully knowing it.
Denying the divisions and denying that there is indeed a Ruling Class that fosters and maintains them does not help either.
We HAVE to talk about it.
Even if we do it stupidly, and even, sad to say, if we hurt each other a bit while doing it. While learning how to talk about it well.
Because not talking about it and facing it means we will NEVER overcome those differences….and thus will always be at the mercy of the Ruling Class maniopulating it.
We must overcome the differences between We The People…
And then we can start to overcome the differences between We The People and The Ruling Class.
And then, only then, can we TRULY create a just, equitable, peacful and prosperous and dignified world.
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…we get through it by actually having this follow through. By getting something like universal health care, even if it is without a public option at first beyond medicaid and medicare; by demonstrating that society can expand to include their tribe, and things will be for them…pretty much as they were before (good and bad). Except a little more inclusive, with a little bit more of a floor. And the world won’t end.
And, eh…there is an alchemy of rage, where it can turn to violence or positive action. One of the benefits of public demonstrations of the old school type is that it serves as the good kind of magic, in that regard. I think we need more of that, outlets for it. Or we’ll just get crazier in front of our keyboards :}
Thanks for the hat tip on the satan :}
Thank you!
I think they will go as far as they can and as far as they are “allowed” by the people! The past eight years demonstrates just how far they will go — if “Impeachment” had not been taken of the table, that would have helped to deter the further evil they wrought. Had there been Congressional blockages from the get-go, they may still have prevailed in fomenting their evil, but it would have been more limited.
So, I use the above as a parallel to our current situation. Then, too, I think if you’re simply talking about all the rhetoric being publicized, etc., we must seek and find intelligent responses in dealing with it. On the other hand, I think it’s important to note that there are certain legalities that may also be involved. So, we must be able to differentiate the “rhetoric” and the “illegal.”
The far right will not stop until Obama is out of office and one of their own is in. I believe they will stop at nothing to bring this about.
in my backyard for a little while, in conversation with Friend-Kid and Her Mom, Jane… we’ve know for 2 or 3 years. Kid and My Kid are great friends, Jane and I are Mom Pals, she’s a nice person.
I mentioned her the other day in a comment here somewhere… she is uninsured and had asked me if I had any good Rx for her pain, which I didnt.
So I get the update yesterday from her, she went to the E.R. that very night, the pain was so bad. She has a cyst on her ovary (she knows b/c 10 years ago went through same with first ovary, which they removed back then).
Anyway… their car bumper sticker is something like “Michael Moore can kiss my a**” and yesterday she had on a white letters on black tshirt: “got freedom?” with Thank a Marine on the back.
We never talk politics, or religion. heh. But I can bet you she would “HATE” me in some abstract way, and I her. Yet, I dont. And she doesn’t.
She filled me in about how she didnt get home from the hospital/E.R. until 4 A.M…. two days later. Never was actually admitted, just in the ER that whole time. They did run some tests and give her pain meds and a referral to an OB/GYN and an appt with County Health Services to apply there.
Why… why … how could she and her family possibly oppose Reform? Oh yeah, they are Mexican American too.
sigh.
The Kids… I just hope they will get it. If we have that much time. I just dont think we do.
it’s got electrolytes……..
non-profit health insurance co-operative, maybe a 501(c)(3) or something federally similar, (or even a federated collection of state 501(c)(3) organizizations, perhaps along the lines of a credit union, and maybe even affiliated with one or more credit unions to initially provide the required backing for insurance policies?
Now there may be something that could draw together a wide range of liberal, progressive, and even centrist, activist groups with a common goal to open discussions with credit union CEO’s and boards to explore if and how this could be done, and compete head on with the insurance companies on price and service.
Might not even need congress or the politicians involved, and I would think marketing it and gaining new ‘subscribers’ would be relatively easy.
Having argued with many a winger, on many a issue,
the same core of the onion usually appears,
after you tactfully peel back all the layers of angry talking points —
at their core, most wingers are motivated by:
their strong religious beliefs,
their belief in absolutes Right and Wrongs,
their abhorrence to abortion,
their trust in authoritative rulers,
their idea that laziness is the root of all evil,
their confidence that their faith covers their ignorance.
and conversely if you peel back the layers on progressives,
you find a similar, but polar opposite set of motivations:
we have a strong belief in human potential,
we see the shades of grey in that Moral spectrum,
we see abortion as a very difficult personal decision,
we distrust authoritative rulers, especially the corporate kind,
we realize fate, and hard breaks, put people in dire straits more than laziness,
progressives have “faith” that doing the right thing, it will lead to restoration of human dignity, someday.
and by seeing those foundational tenants, those spectrums of values,
I have on occasion also found a bridge between sides — (well actually 2 bridges, usually serve as useful “common threads”).
1) the first bridge, the more reliable one, is the Idea of Accountability.
Both points of view want Accountability, they just disagree about the terms, and about who the real culprits are.
But we are all Accountable to one degree or another, especially at the citizen level — both sides will agree.
And if we can find “common villains” (hint: Bankers, Outsourcing, the Fed, the Scam artists) well the bridge of understanding starts to connect.
2) the second bridge, the more sketchy one, is the Idea of Empathy or Compassion.
Like it or not, most Wingers DO care about other people — especially about other people they personally know, others in their sphere, others in their “own tribe”
Everyone knows someone a victim of hard luck, unemployed, or in dire health — and that “personal connection” the link, between sides. A concrete reason, to extend Unemployment Benefits. The Laziness excuse, falls by the wayside.
And well for Progressives, Empathy and Compassion, are our Achilles heel. We perhaps care TOO much (?)
But that’s what happens, when your Tribe, is decided larger in scope, to such a point, that injustice in world, just screams to be righted, that causes us pain.
The wingers, want injustice righted too,
they just don’t always see it as well,
living the insular lives that they do.
We can educate them in that regard, by pointing out, its scope, and details — Xe Outrage, anyone?
Indeed certain things about the Human Condition are common, even between the divided factions of the struggling People.
It’s when a person, corporate or otherwise, loses touch with the core desire for Accountability, for Empathy for Compassion, that you have to watch out!
Because then their rage and indifference, leads to exploitation and worse. Bad actions tend to be justified, when the Cause is important enough, to such empty souls.
Those with No Fear of Consequences, have a mindset, that is to be feared indeed.
my two cents, for what’s it’s worth.
great post buhdy!
…so when discussing things with a wingnut simply go along feigning ignorance and keep asking questions which highlight the ridiculous ultimate outcome of the policies they advocate. This makes Budhy’s point very clear — their views are being manipulated by the ruling class to keep them from uniting with liberals in common cause on economic issues.
Examples:
Prayer in school…great…except we won’t let the Buddhist kids can show their schoolmates how to chant, right? Or the Mormon kids talk about their stuff, right, Or the Jehovah Witnesses…can’t have them arguing with the Catholic kids, right? Or the Muslims…not Koran recitations will be allowed, right? So who will decide what kind of prayer will be allowed in your kid’s school?
Outlaw abortion…great…then we can fill the prisons with pregnant women and force them to have those babies, right? And anyone who is involved in providing abortions and the evil baby killing pregnant women will all be given the death penalty for murder, right?
Get Government out of Health Care – make it a pure free market deal…great…then when Medicare and Medicaid and the VA is shut down there will be so many uninsured sick people the doctors will have to accept less or they just won’t have enough customers, right?